Month: April 2012

Oeufs en cocotte with creme fraiche

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The newest foodie to join the BBC is Rache Khoo in The Little Paris Kitchen. på BBC. She trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, opened up her small flat as a restaurant and is now cooking away in this series where she focusses on Parisian food, often with a little twist.

In one episode she made oeuf en cocotte, which I have made before too, but she used creme fraiche instead of cream. I had to try this because I adore creme fraiche and always have some at hand in the fridge. However, you do need to like creme fraiche a lot I think to appreciate this recipe as it is a little sour. Instead of serving the cocottes with salmon roe and dill I used truffle oil to flavour mine.

Oeuf en cocotte with creme fraiche and truffle oil, 1 portion

1 egg

50-100 ml creme fraiche (full fat)

salt & pepper

grated nutmeg

a few drops truffle oil

Spoon most of the creme fraiche into a ramekin and season it with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Crack the egg on top and place another dollop of creme fraiche on top. Add the truffle oil and place in a roasting tray. Pour lukewarm water into the roasting tray so it reaches half way up the sides of the ramekin. Place in 160C oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Longer if you want your eggs more set. Serve with soldiers.

Cheese stuffed peppers

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Melted cheese. Is there anything more comforting? It cures (or at least helps) a hangover and tastes so so good.

Although this recipe contains a lot of cheese, it feels slightly healthy because they peppers fill you up so there is no need to add bread or pasta. And they’re delicious in their own simple way.

I used the lovely sweet romano peppers here, but use whatever peppers you like. I liked this dish so much that I first had it for supper one evening and then as lunch at the weekend. Yummy!

Cheese stuffed peppers, serves 1

1 romano pepper

3 tbsp philadelphia cheese

50 ml grated strong cheese (I used cheddar)

olive oil, salt, white pepper

To serve: rocket, olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Drizzle some oil in a roasting tray. Turn the oven on 200C. Cut the pepper in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Rinse and place hollow side up in the tray. Mix the cheese together and stuff the peppers with it. Add salt and pepper. Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the peppers are soft.

Place a bed of rocket salad on a plate. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic and place the peppers on top.

Venison mince buorguignon

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Not evry long ago I saw that Annika at the Swedish food blog Smaskens.nu had been making a boeuf bourguignon with beef mince and I thought that was a nice thing to try. But then I remembered I had a kilo of lovely venison mince (from fallow deer) in the freezer from Sweden and tried the recipe with that.

As usual though, I made a few changes, but not all of them because I wanted to. For starters I had to use streaky bacon instead of lardons, because I couldn’t find any lardons in my local supermarket. Shame on you Sanisbury’s.

I also cooked the dish in my slowcooker while I was at work, and that worked really well.

Because venison mince is very lean (like all game) it really works to either cook it with some more fatty ingredients, like cream or to serve it with something richer. I went for the latter, because you should not have cream in a bourguignon! Instead I made a very creamy potato purée with lots of butter to serve with it. It was the perfect combination and also how Annika served hers with beef mince. Thank you for that suggestion!

Below is my own version of this dish, but I found all the inspiration here. If you fancy a proper Boeuf Bourguignon instead, then try the ultimate recipe by Julia Child.

Venison mince buorguignon, serves 4- 6

1 kg venison mince

1/2 bottle red wine

200 ml water

2 tsp concentrated beef stock

1 bouquet garni

3 whole cloves of garlic

2 sprigs thyme (taken off the stem)

2 tbsp tomato purée

salt, black pepper

Step 2:

another dash of red wine

2-3 slices carrots

2 tbsp maizena (corn starch to thicken)

1 tbsp tomato purée

season to taste with stock, salt and pepper

100 g button mushrooms

100 g lardon (or streaky bacon)

Brown the mince in butter and transfer to the slowcooker. Add wine, stock, water, garlic, herbs, tomato purée, salt and pepper. Turn it on low heat and leave it for 8 hours. Transfer the pot to the stove (or pour the stew into another pan) and add the wine, carrots, tomato purée and maizena/corn starch. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for 10 minutes to thicken and for the carrots to cook. In the meantime, fry the mishrooms in butter on high heat, then the lardons/bacon and add to the pot.

Season to taste with sugar, herbs and salt and pepper. Serve with a buttery potato purée (cook waxy potatoes until very soft, mix with a plenty of butter with a stick blender, season with salt and pepper) and creme fraiche. If you have leftovers the stew will only taste better the next day.

Gooey chocolate cake with cheesecake marbling

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Every month when I make the cakes for work I make sure on of them is a chocolate cake as it is always popular.

In Sweden a gooey mudcake is very popular and although the office loves the plain one I wanted to make one a little bit more interesting. And when I found this recipe on Alexandras’s Swedish blog Kärlek på tallrik (in English: Love on a plate) I knew I had to try it.

The chocolate cakes is a fairly standard mudcake recipe that you bake for 10 minutes so it sets around the edges. In the meantime you make a cheesecake filling and pour it into the chocolate batter and bake it until just set and still gooey. Really yummy, especially if it has been in the fridge for a few hours and is served with lightly whipped cream.

Gooey chocolate cake with cheesecake marbling, sreves 10

After Alexandra’s recipe.

Chocolate cake:

150 g butter
2 eggs
300 ml caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
150 ml plain flour
4 tbsp cocoa

Cheesecake filling:

2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
75 ml caster sugar
400 g philadelphia
the juice from 1/2 lime

Preheat the oven to 175C and butter a cake tin. Melt the butter and leave it to cool a little. Beat eggs and sugar for the chocolate until pale and fluffy in a large mixing bowl. Mix the dry ingredients in a seperate bowl and incorporate into the egg mixture. Add the vanilla and melted butter and stir to combine.

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 10 minutes. In the meantime mix all the indgredients for the cheesecake filling: beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy then add the cream cheese and lime juice and beat until smooth.

Pour the cheesecake mixture into the chocolate cake anyway you like, I poured it into the middle. Bake for another 30 minutes or until the cake is just set but still gooey. Leave to cool and chill in the fridge before serving. Serve with icecream, lightly whipped cream or on its own.

Almond meringue tart with custard

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The next cake for work have also featured on the blog before, but it was a while ago, so I think it is fair to let it into the limelight once again.

The recipe for this cake is from one of my mother’s many cookbooks and is courtesy of the chefs at Svaneholms Slott in Sweden once upon a time (it is an old book) but the nice thing is that this hotel is in an old castle just 15 minutes from where my parents live.

My colleague Michael loved this cake so much that he asked for the recipe straight away, and I do agree with him – it is a wonderful cake.

It works just as well to end a dinner party as to serve with tea or coffee on a Sunday aftrenoon. The texture is creamy and chewy at the same time and the flavours are really nice. Also it is very simple to make, but it might not look it.

The original recipe calls for flaked almonds to top but I, however think it looks nicer with some fresh raspberries.

Almond meringue tart with custard (gluten free), 8 portioner

150 g ground almonds

5 eggwhites

200 g icing sugar

Beat the eggwhites until stiff peaks. Fold in the icing sugar followed by the ground almonds. Pour into a buttered dish and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes in 175C.

Custard:

3 egg yolks

200 ml double cream

150 ml caster sugar

1,5 tbsp butter

Add the ingredients to a saucepan. Let it all melt while stirring and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Leave to coll and pour onto the meringue base. Leave to cool a little and decorate with raspberries or flaked almonds.